that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. [theme music] i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> this is "dateline." >> he married the woman of his dreams, beautiful and sweet. >> she was just angelic. >> and was folded into her tight-knit family headed by an elderry religious matriarch. >> you were part of their family or you weren't. together they had a little girl, sydney. >> their view, sydney was their property. >> one day he went to pick up his little girl for a visit and was never seen alive again. >> he died right there. >> but who would kill a devoted dad? the unbelievable choice, his golden girl wife or the gracious

family might arc? they seemed so loving, but was there another side. >> it's a monster that comes out of a closet. it's very ugly. >> how dark is that side? >> murderous. >> but which one was the killer? hello and welcome to "dateline." he was a man suddenly confronted with something monstrous, evil at the door. this story is a mystery about a father of two young daughters. one night he left to pick up one of them and never came back. the question for investigators wasn't what happened. it was who did it. >> in the home of a god-fearing family in one of the smallest of american towns, the worst of

crimes. >> please come and help us. >> okay. i'll get a hold of the ambulance. all right? >> yes. >> the crime became a mystery, a whodunit? >> it's a puzzle. almost a game of three card monte. >> it made many people in town wonder about one particular family, about what had been going on behind the closed doors of their home. >> how well do you really know your neighbors? how well do you really know the people that surround you? >> get one? want me to feed it to him? >> our story begins with stephen watkins who had grown up in tiny chandlerville in rural central illinois, population 700. he'd had the kind of ideal childhood he wanted to recreate on his own. >> i think that was probably his biggest goal in life, was to have that family that he grew up with. stephen's parents, penny and dale, say even as a kid their boy was always holding his younger sister ashleigh or cousins playing with him, showering them with attention. >> he loved kids, loved people, and he was going to have kids

and be around them. >> he was patient and kind and had a smile for everyone. >> you could always see the smile in his eyes. i could just look in him and see the joy of life. >> brandy ran cross country with stephen back in the '90s. >> just a really good guy, genuine, loved his family, not an enemy in the world. just always looked out for people. >> in his 20s, stephen joined the military. >> i think he wanted to get out and see a different part of the world. he was raised in a small town and he felt like the military could offer him adventure. >> stephen signed with the coast guard and moved to virginia. but not long before he left, a former girlfriend gave birth to a baby girl named alexandra, alex. it was his baby girl and he immediately jumped in as her father. >> stephen right right there.

when she was born, he doted over her. he was just excited about every little thing. he would sleep right by alex's bed, holding her little hand. that's just how he was. >> the former girlfriend regularly took alex to visit stephen in virginia and the bond between father and daughter grew strong. alex's mother then realized stephen could offer more stability and a better home life for their daughter than she could, and she gave him full custody of her. >> that says a lot about him as a dad. >> yes. stephen was responsible, and that says that he was determined to be part of his children's life. >> when alex was 2, stephen moved her to virginia to live with him full time. >> he made sure she was in a good day care. there was always times when he had to make sure he run out and got her at the right time. >> did he complain he didn't have freedom? >> absolutely not. he was content with that. >> but stephen also wanted a wife. when his coast guard service ended, he returned home, living

in a house behind his parents and got a job with the state. about a year later stephen noticed an attractive woman whose office shared a parking lot with his. >> he was really excited. he felt like i found what i've been looking for in life. >> that woman was jennifer webster who had grown up around the corner from stephen's friend brandy. >> she was very tall and just angelic in so many ways, her smile was contagious as well. very bright, very modelesque. when she walked into a room i think people turned their heads because she was beautiful. >> she was a very cute girl, long hair. she can be as sweet as can be. you can take her to any crowd and she'll fit in. >> jennifer's uncle ed skinner remembers hearing about stephen from jennifer before the two started dating in the summer of 2006. from jennifer's description, stephen seemed to be infatuated with her from a distance. >> she said this boy has been watching me in the parking lot at work, watches my every move every time i go to work, he's there sitting in his car, until

i get out. my two boys and looked at each other and said stalker stephen. >> his mother says stephen wasn't stalking her, but had spoken with her a few times before asking her out in that very same parking lot. they became a couple instantly. >> this happened so quick, i was shocked. she brought him to church two weeks after they had met and introduced him to my father-in-law, didn't even know his last name. >> ed says this wasn't how things usually went in his and jennifer's family which he says was slow to accept outsiders. >> we're a kind of family that every single night for probably 15 years we met for supper someplace, either at their house, my house or at a local restaurant. we was just a close-knit family. >> the skinners in are a religious family, seventh day

adventists, in the last several years multiple generations lived together in a large home, one of the biggest in the neighborhood. they stuck together, kept to themselves, to the point where some people say they seemed almost clannish. brandy says not only were they tight-knit, but family successful as well, the result of a family business. >> they always had nicer things. i remember one summer they had a garage sale and it was like a gold mine. >> jennifer was beautiful, well off, came from a close family like stephen had and yearned for a family as stephen did. what could be better? in the end, the real question what could be worse? >> he didn't know what he was getting into. coming up, stephen's family starts to wonder exactly what kind of woman he's gotten involved with. >> it was a disgrace that she would even do something like that. >> when "dateline" continues.

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welcome back to "dateline." stephen and jennifer seemed to have a lot in common, both came from close families, and they were both interested in growing a family. the budding relationship appeared so simple at first. but how well did they really know each other? they couldn't know it yet, but the couple was in for rockier times ahead. we continue with "the mystery on horseshoe drive." >> that's it. there's your horse. there he is. >> in the heart of an illinois

farm belt, a new relationship was growing very fast. it seemed stephen and jennifer began dating one day and became a committed couple the next. making it a happy threesome, stephen's daughter from a previous relationship, alex. stephen often captured family moments with photos and family video. his family says he thought jennifer would make the perfect wife and mother. >> he felt like she wants to cook with us, she loves alex. she treats alex like she's her mother. >> the woman to complete his life. >> yes. >> the family he was looking for. >> yes. >> if stephen was happy, his mother had her doubts about the girl from that tight-knit family. >> i didn't feel like she really wanted to be part of our family, and that was from the very beginning i felt that way. >> stephen's dad took a more positive view. >> i just thought it was going to be a good fit for him. i thought jennifer would be real good for both of them. they presented a pretty good picture.

>> was your son in love? >> yes. >> stephen began spending much of his time with alex, jennifer and her family. he was thrilled that the family seemed to embrace him and his daughter, as his sister ashleigh remembers. >> that was number one. he wanted to make sure they enjoyed kids and would get along with alex, too. not only was she nice and interacting with him and alex and basically the perfect mother, but their family was accepting alex and welcoming both of them with open arms. >> it was crucial to stephen to have this family accept alex. >> exactly. >> within weeks of meeting, stephen and jennifer got married in august 2006. stephen's family remembers how happy everyone seemed the day of the wedding, especially stephen. >> he was ecstatic, had a big old smile, eyes shining. it was an outdoors wedding. it was really a nice wedding. >> they threw petals on the sidewalk. >> she was smiling ear to ear. her family made several comments about how they were happy they had such a wonderful son-in-law

and he was going to be part of their family. >> the whole family raved about stephen and alex. >> the whole family, that is, except jennifer's uncle ed. he says he didn't approve of the whirlwind romance. he didn't like that stalker steve became the one so quickly. he did not attend the wedding. >> i was told within a month after they started dating they was going to get married. and that's just not the way that our family ever did it. you get to know somebody, you did them a long time before you just commit to something in life. i felt she jumped out of the skillet into the frying pan. >> did you feel stephen was jumping out of the skillet and into the frying pan? >> yeah. he didn't know what he was getting into. >> their life together unfolded like a storybook marriage. not long after the wedding they bought a home on horseshoe

drive, just down the block from where her parents and grandparents lived in ashland, about a half hour from stephen's family. then, not long after that stephen called his mom with more big news. jennifer was pregnant. >> i was excited for him. i kept thinking, you know, maybe i was wrong and being thankful that i had not said anything, imposed my feelings on him. i'm thinking they're going to have a baby, they're doing good as a family. >> but soon after the announcement things seemed to change for stephen and alex. his mother says jennifer's family suddenly wanted nothing to do with stephen's daughter. >> he said jennifer's family told alex that she's not really part of their family. i don't understand how they can love her and make her a special part and treat her like blood and then all of a sudden just turn and go the other way. >> she says alex was very upset by the rejection. stephen was as well. soon with the spring thaw, about six months after stephen and jennifer's wedding, their

relationship grew ice cold. now it was stephen himself who was also feeling rejected, kicked out of that family circle. >> stephen was hurt and discouraged. i don't know if he thought that was just a stage that she would go through while she was pregnant, a hormonal thing. somehow he could make things better and get them back on track. >> it didn't get better. instead the relationship flu off the rails after the baby was born in june 2007, a girl named sydney. >> it was like jennifer wanted her family and her to be part of sydney's life, but didn't want anybody else to be part of it. stephen said, i barely even get to see sydney. when i get home, jennifer goes down to her mom's house with grandma shirley and auld of them. he said she even bathes sydney down there and everything, brings her home at 9:30, 10:00 and time to go to bed and gets up the next morning and starts the routine over again. >> stephen told his parents

jennifer thought the arrangement made for the perfect marriage, but stephen thought just the opposite. to him it was no marriage at all, and worse, he wasn't able to see his new baby. his mom says he was running out of patience and options. >> he said, mom, the only way i'm ever going to get to know sydney or to get time with sydney without jennifer being attached to her is if i file for divorce and get visitation. >> he needs to divorce his wife to see his daughter? >> yes. it was a very hard decision for him to make. >> he also filed for custody of sydney, and that set off a move from jennifer stephen never expected. she fired back a bombshell. >> the day that she found out that he filed for divorce and custody of sydney, the day she found out, she called dcfs and accused him of molesting sydney and alex. >> molesting sydney and alex. >> yes. >> did your son molest his daughters?

>> absolutely not. >> i thought it was a disgrace that she would even do something like that. not only did she hurt him and her alex, she hurt the whole family. >> as the state investigated, stephen was allowed visits with sydney. but his family said jennifer continued to keep sydney from him. >> knowing the skinner family, they were so tight-knit, they would let nothing come in between them and their grandchild. >> the allegations of sexual abuse didn't stick. the department of children and family services said they were unfounded, but jennifer still wouldn't allow stephen to see sydney. to force her to share the baby with stephen, the judge in their divorce case ordered that stephen get regular visits with sydney. that court order helped and stephen was able to see sydney for a few visits. he sometimes invited jennifer to come along as they did to pick pumpkins in october 2008, because despite all that had happened, his family says stephen was still hoping he could show jennifer how good

life could be with the four of them together as a family. his efforts were in vain, though. far more often than not, jennifer and her family denied stephen visits with her family, frequently saying sydney was sick. once stephen called a police officer to the family to help him. the family still said no. stephen was becoming more and more frustrated. then one evening in late november 2008, the whole situation exploded. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> my, my, my grandmother needs help. my husband came to pick up my child because we're getting a divorce, and he come after her and tried to come after the baby and i. >> coming up, jennifer was calling for her grandmother, but it was stephen who needed help. >> looked like somebody decided to shoot him in the back of the head. >> when "dateline" continues.

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welcome back to "dateline." stephen watkins became increasingly frustrated his estranged wife jennifer was keeping their daughter away from him. they had been battling in court, but things were about to turn violent. we continue with "the mystery on horseshoe drive." >> it's not just corn that grows quickly in rural illinois. so did the family of stephen and

jennifer. they met, married and had a baby in about a year's time. and just as quickly, their relationship fell apart. they were fighting over baby sydney when stephen went to jennifer's one november each to pick up the child. within minutes, jennifer was on the phone with 911, hysterical. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> my, my, my grandmother needs help. my husband came to pick up my child because we're getting a divorce, and he come after her and tried to come after the baby and i, he's on the floor shot. >> is she shot? >> no, he's shot. i need an ambulance for my grandmother. >> it was a confusing 911 call. jennifer wanted an ambulance for her grandmother shirley skinner. as for her estranged husband stephen, jennifer implied to the dispatcher he had been shot to protect her family. >> he come after her and pushed

her out of the way and then he tried to come after sydney and i. oh, god. >> what happened to your grandmother? >> i think she might -- she's having heart trouble. please come and held us. >> what's your name? >> jennifer watkins. >> okay. i'll get a hold of the ambulance, all right? >> yes. >> ashland police chief jim birdsell was called to the scene. >> about 9:50 i got a phone call from 911 advising me there had been a domestic in town at 11 horseshoe drive, saying the husband came to pick up the daughter for visitation, forced into the horse, knocked the elderly woman down and she's having medical problems. >> when he arrived, he found this was no routine domestic. >> i walk up, open the door and walk in the house. directly in front of me was an elderly lady sitting in the chair which turned out to be

shirley skinner and a person kneeling beside her holding her hand. >> then a first responder motioned over to the other side of the room. >> i saw the body laying down there. >> any sign of life? >> no. >> it was stephen watkins, dead on the floor. a 9 millimeter glock handgun on a box several feet away. >> trying to get in my mind what happened, the ems personnel told me shirley made a statement to them that she had shot him. >> they reported to the chief that shirley had said a couple times is he dead? i shot him. he shouldn't have come back here. a stunning story, but this was secondhand information. from first responders quoting an elderly woman in the midst of a medical and family crisis. were her statements reliable? had she really said that? chief birdsell asked jenner what happened. >> he said stephen forced his way in the house and knocked her grandmother down and then he was coming after her and the baby

and the grandmother shot him. >> it all seemed hard to believe. chief birdsell wanted to ask shirley what happened but never got a chance. >> about the time i was getting ready to, her attorney was on the phone and said he didn't want me talking to her? >> she was already lawyered up? >> shortly after jennifer also hired an attorney and stopped talking as well. jennifer's grandfather who was in the house at the time stephen was killed wasn't talking either. so what had happened in the skinner home? had stephen watkins finally gotten so frustrated over the child custody battle that he completely lost it and barged into the house on a rampage? with shirley, jennifer and grandpa silent, the evidence would have to tell the tale. >> did you see signs of a break-in? >> the door didn't have any damage. >> any signs of a struggle. >> not on the door. there was supposedly something on the wall that was broke, it was hanging down. >> a sconce on the wall of the

house. >> on the wall of the house. >> there's no indication the sconce was broken that way and there was no skin tissue or blood found on the sconce. had shirley skinner really been pushed down by stephen? >> did you see any injuries consistent with her being knocked to the ground? >> no, sir. >> any black eyes or broken bones? >> no, sir, didn't see anything like that. >> did she seem like her clothes were out of place? >> no, sir. >> didn't look disheveled? >> no. >> what's more, stephen had been shot once in the back of the head and he did not have a gun or any other weapon on him. the chief didn't think it was self-defense. >> so what does it look like to you? >> looks like somebody decided to shoot him in the back of the head. >> but who was the somebody who shot him? members of the skinner family obviously knew who did it, but none of them were talking, complicating matters, chief birdsell had never handled a murder before. most of his law enforcement career had been spent on vehicle code violations. he thought he would be able to handle the case on his own but he couldn't. the case dragged on for months.

>> people all over the community are saying why hasn't there been an arrest. yes. i was hearing that a lot. >> as the case dragged on, the whodunit became the talk of the town. >> people are very, very aware of the killing in this community. >> bruce rushton covered the case for the springfield "register." >> any time we write about this in the newspaper, it's the most clicked on thing, or close to the most clicked on thing. it's a puzzle her. it's almost a game of three card monte. >> rushton said no one thought stephen instigated the violence. everyone the reporter spoke to had only good things to say about stephen including two teachers who taught his daughter alex. >> both agreed they had never in their teaching careers seen a father so devoted to his children. when i talked to his co-workers, they all knew alex and sydney had a pretend bake session. he had animal crackers he was putting in the toy of and playing with his kids.

how many fathers do that? >> everyone thought stephen was such a great guy, such a great dad. who would kill him? ultimately mike vujovich, then with the state attorney's appellate prosecutors office and sergeant kelly walter, now a colonel with the illinois state police took over the investigation. they focused on a key question, who pulled the trigger. the forensic evidence was no help. >> was the weapon tested for dna? >> it was. >> was anything found? >> nothing. >> no fingerprints on it at all? >> no fingerprints on it. >> were gun residue tests performed on the people inside that house at the time of the shooting? >> they were not. >> no blood spatter was found on any of the family's clothing. investigators had no physical evidence proving any one person had murdered stephen watkins, even though he was clearly shot to death inside the skinner home. all they had was statements from first responders claiming shirley skinner, an elderly

woman very upset and agitated at the time said she shot stephen. did she really mean to say that? did they really hear her right? who was the shooter? to solve that mystery they would look into the inner workings of the tight-knit skinner family, and they say what they found there helped them finally get to the bottom of who pulled the trigger and why. >> coming up, investigators have questions about the golden girl who held sway over the entire clan. >> it's a monster that comes out of a closet. it's very, very ugly, very ugly. >> when "dateline" continues. with every meal, there's a dish. but what happens to all that grease? it flows into your dishwasher, gumming up its performance.

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leader kim jong-un in the dnc. the u.s. will restart negotiations with china, by the tariffs will not be lifted. the president held talks with china's president earlier today. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. investigators had more questions than answers in the murder of stephen watkins. but one thing they knew for sure, the shooting took place inside the skinner household. how would they finally find out who pulled the trigger? we continue with "the mystery on horseshoe drive." >> we all lost our lives that night. you know, it's not something you ever get over. >> on the tuesday evening before thanksgiving 2008, penny watkins' son stephen had gone to pick up his baby daughter sydney for a court-ordered visit when she was shot to death.

stephen's wife jennifer told police he barged into her home, knocked over her grandmother and was heading for her and the baby when her grandmother shot him. but had it really gone down that way? why would an elderly religious woman shoot the father of her great granddaughter. as investigators focused on grandma shirley, they began to look more closely at jennifer. for one thing, they learned she had been married before. jennifer's uncle ed skinner says that relationship was a sign of things to come. >> that didn't last long. she just had to have her way all the time. there was never his way, so he didn't stick around. >> he divorced her? >> yes, sir. >> did you blame him? >> no, sir, not at all. >> state police say when they talked to jennifer's first husband, he described an us-against-them mentality in jennifer's insular family. >> they did everything together. you were either a part of their

family or you weren't. >> stephen watkins was clearly no longer part of the family, after the divorce filing, accusations of child molesting and the custody dispute. now jennifer was losing that dispute. abuse allegations had been found baseless. a court hearing about increased visitation for stephen had been scheduled. >> how concerned is the skinner family about this visitation ruling? >> very concerned, very concerned. in their view sydney was their property. they were not going to share their property with anyone outside that skinner family, even steven watkins. >> the skinner family was circling the wagons for themselves, and he was the enemy. >> jennifer and her family feared stephen would be successful in getting overnight visitation at that hearing. he was also continuing his quest for sole custody of sydney. but he never made it to the courthouse. he was killed the night before at his estranged wife's home. according to investigators, the skinner family had been so concerned about the hearing, jennifer's mother hired a private investigator to witness stephen picking up the baby the evening he was killed, perhaps to observe something that could be used against him at the

hearing the following day. >> perhaps some dirt, if she was cries when dad picked her up or maybe he wasn't putting her in the baby car seat. >> state police learned jennifer's mother told the private i not to show up, not long before stephen was to arrived. >> less than two hours later stephen watkins is laying dead on the floor. >> suddenly the child custody issue that posed such a problem for jennifer was solved forever. >> according to ed, his family catered to her. >> she's a spoiled rotten brat. we didn't do anything if jennifer didn't want to do it. >> ed says shirley doted on jennifer, the first-born grandchild. >> they was very, very close. there was nothing jennifer could ask for that she didn't get. she lived as a princess, treated as a princess. when she went to church, she looked like a little doll stepped out of a magazine, dressed fit to kill.

>> as she grew up, he says jennifer could be sweet, but her dark side was something else. >> it's a monster that comes out of a closet. it's very, very ugly, very ugly. she just thinks she can control anybody that she comes along with. >> when jennifer doesn't get her way, what happens? >> she throws a fit and life is miserable for everybody around. >> do you believe jennifer was just using stephen to get a child. now she had what she wanted, she had to get out? >> i think at the time she was probably hoping that it would work, hoping he would knuckle under and obey her, but i think later on she saw that that wasn't going to work. she knew she had her child and that's what she really wanted. >> and ed believed jennifer would do anything to keep sydney from stephen. >> she just said he couldn't have it. >> even going so far as pulling the trigger herself, ed says. after all, the murder weapon was not shirley's. it was jennifer's. >> jennifer has every motive to do it. >> he says even if his mother

was the one who killed stephen, she was probably driven to it by jennifer. >> so my mom and dad was around jennifer and her mouth 24 hours a day. and she is very annoying when it comes to something that she believes in. and she believed in not giving stephen the daughter. and she talked about it constantly. >> this goes beyond annoyance. >> oh yes, yes. >> it's not just ed who thinks jennifer might have killed stephen and shirley was trying to take the fall to protect her granddaughter, the young mom. reporter bruce rushton went to a vigil for steven nine months after he was killed which included a walk to the skinner family home. people there were split over whether it was shirley or jennifer who killed stephen. >> it's a head-scratcher. what's the grandmother's motive here? compare that to jennifer watkins' motives?

did these folks truly believe sydney was being abused? you can't help but ask yourself. >> the jury will be asking. >> you would imagine. >> the jury would soon get its chance. more than ten months after stephen watkins was shot to death, an arrest in florida where shirley and jennifer had gone to live with baby sydney. chief birdsell was there. >> when she saw me there, she appeared to be very surprised. i was happy to be there. >> but which one was arrested for the murder of stephen watkins? shirley, the matriarch, or jennifer, the mom embroiled in a custody battle? coming up, it turns out one of them had strange marks on her hand the night of the murder. >> two lines? >> two lines. >> consistent with firing that type of weapon. >> consistent with firing this type of weapon. >> when "dateline" continues. [♪]

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in october 2009, more than ten months after stephen watkins was shot to death, his parents finally received the call from police they had been long waiting for. >> what did they say? >> we just wanted to let you know we've picked shirley skinner up in florida for the murder of stephen. >> shirley skinner, the religious might arc of a close-knit family. despite what shirley's son ed

says and the rumors around town that jennifer might have pulled the trigger, it was the grandmother who was charged. though jennifer implied her grandmother shot stephen in defense of her and baby sydney, investigators believe the older woman had executed him in cold blood. >> what do you think happened? >> stephen was coming over to pick up sydney for his court-ordered visitation, came to the door and once again was told that the baby was sick. perhaps he was frustrated once again by being told that, maybe he said something to the effect of, oh, bs, and may have been lured in, come in and see for yourself. then he's inside the house and it's a distance of approximately 30 feet from the main entry door to sydney's bedroom. and we've got to believe that jennifer was holding the baby. as he's walking down the length of that dining room, he's passing shirley, as he walks past her, it's our belief that she then shot him. >> had he been turned over as though somebody was trying to be cpr?

>> no. he lay where he fell. >> shot in the back of the head and fell forward. pool of blood around his head, his baseball cap underneath him. he died right there where he was shot. >> why had shirley been the one charged? though the forensic evidence collected at the scene was not useful, authorities did have important eyewitness evidence, something first responders and chief birdsell said they had seen that night, two parallel scrapes on shirley skinner's hand. >> she has two marks across the webbing of her hand. >> what's significant about that? >> the significance, as you can see, the slide part of the weapon is coming back over the webbing of my hand. if she's holding it wrong, something that could catch it would be the hand and the marks could be made from that slide coming back across the hand. >> two lines. >> two lines consistent with firing this type of weapon. >> to investigators, those marks conclusively put the gun in shirley's hand. once more, they learned shirley had been planning stephen's murder for a while, by trying to find somebody to kill him.

>> about a month or so before stephen's execution, shirley approached two of her employees and offered them $10,000 to cap this guy who they identified as being steve watkins. >> cap this guy. this little old grandmother? >> yes. the one employee said he thought she was joking. at which point she said no, i'm serious, i'm serious. >> how did an elderly religious woman who once owned a day-care center become someone the state was accusing of premeditated murder. >> to her fellow parishioners, she's a fine gracious christian woman who loves children. that's one side of shirley. >> the grandmother who loves kids. is there another side. >> proficient in the use of guns which in and of itself doesn't mean anything. but that put together with the cultish form of that family, where everything is done for the family, within the family, to the exclusion of anybody on the outside, and we will take

whatever measures necessary to protect that family unit, that is the other side of the contradiction. >> how dark is that side? >> murderous. >> that went to the heart of the state's theory, that shirley had fired a fatal shot to rid the family of a son-in-law they no longer welcome and didn't want in baby sydney's life. >> are you convinced shirley skinner acted alone? >> i believe shirley skinner pulled the trigger. do i think she acted alone? no. it's been a family conspiracy, family plan. they were not going to allow him any further contact with that little baby. >> yet, no fingerprints, no dna, no gunshot residue, no blood spatter, no recorded statements from either shirley, jennifer or anyone else in the family and those supposedly incriminating marks on shirley's hands, it turns out they had never been photographed. a jury would never see them for themselves. would any jury be able to sort out this case, an alleged family conspiracy, two women at the

crime scene, one who appeared to have clear motive. the other, 75 years old, neither with criminal records. it seemed such a confused slim case, ed says, he and the family believed shirley would never be found guilty. when she was offered a plea deal, she turned it down and chose to go to trial. >> i was convinced she didn't do it. >> coming up, jurors have their doubts, too. >> does shirley skinner look like someone who can commit this kind of crime? >> honestly no. can when i first walked in there, i thought she was one of the attorneys. i had no idea she was actually the one on trial. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues wh? advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts. you'll ask... what pain? with advil liqui-gels. howl whimper

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when you're not, you pay for data by the gig. use a little, pay a little. use a lot, just switch to unlimited. get $400 back when you buy the new lg g8. call, visit or click today. >> welcome back to "dateline." the prosecution case faced serious problems. here now is the conclusion of our story. the mystery on horseshoe drive. >> in america's heartland, shirley skinner went on trial for the first degree murder of her son in-law and allegedly

asking two workers at the family business if they knew anyone who would cap somebody for $10,000. >> kind of went in large measure to her deep contempt and the hatred she had for the father of her great grand baby to kill him. >> the trial lasted four days. the state alleged she killed him to eliminate the family problem. no physical evidence, no dna, no gun shot res due, no photo of her hands. only description that shirley told them she shot steven. >> now to make the case. lawyers for shirley emphasize the fact there was no physical evidence linking her to the

weapon and argue shirley's statements to the first responder, is he dead? i shot him. made during a medical emergency. pointed at jennifer through inu end owe and implication with her ugly divorce and custody battle. they didn't directly argue jennifer pulled the trigger, only there was no hard evidence. what did jennifer say? >> nothing. she didn't even attend the trial. >> what did jurors think of the case? we spoke with three. >> does shirley skinner look like someone who could commit this crime? >> honestly, no. when i walked in there, i thought she was one of the attorneys. i had no idea she was the one that was on trial. >> what did you think of the

police investigation? >> left something to be desired. >> a lot of holes. >> i would have like to have seen pictures of the scrapes on her hand. >> when it came down to the final vote, how difficult was it? >> difficult when deciding someone's fate. it didn't take long. >> the jury was out a total of 90 minutes including lunch before finding shirley skinner guilty of murdered err. the steven's family was elated. >> i was convinced my mom would get off. >> shirley serving the 55-year sentence. if she had taken the plea deal, she would be out in nine. >> what is it like to see your mother behind bars? >> horrible. absolutely horrible.

>> although ed skinner split from his family publicly blaming jennifer, he still struck a note us against him. >> i feel jennifer made this bed, she needs to sleep in it. she knew what she was getting into the rest of the family. >> when you say these people. >> nothing bad. just a little different than we are used to. we don't believe in drinking or smoking. >> and you have guns in your house. somebody in your family did it. pretty hard for you to be sitting here judging someone else. >> exactly. leaving the skinner family in tact. very, very poorly planned out

scheme. ruined the watkins family, ruined the skinner family. i don't think they planned it out as good as they should have if they were going to do something like that. despite the accusations. neither jennifer nor anyone else was charged with any crime related to the shooting. no one in the family agreed to speak with "dateline" but ed. the stevens family has been raising their daughter. in 2016, the judge determined sydney was neglected. she went to live with her paternal aunt.

her mom has supervised visitation rights. >> from my view, he gave his life for her. >> that's all on this edition of "dateline." thanks for watching. good morning. i'm joling kent. here is what is happening right now. president trump's overnight news conference. what he said about north korea, russia and the democratic debates. >> tomorrow, we are going to the dmz. i said i'm there. if you watch the debates, if you call them debates. whatever they were. i think they want open borders. >> we had a great discussion president putin and myself. >> i don't really care about offending people. >>